Peaceful religion isn't spelled Islam

[ibTina]

Violence from the start.

Just prior to Muhammad's leaving for Medina, he received a "revelation" allowing him to fight the Meccans. He knew that in Medina, he had a group of armed men who would support him. Furthermore, in Medina, would be more distant from the Meccans and their attempts to oppress or kill him.

After moving to Medina, Muhammad began to have conflict with the Jews and pagans in the area. I'll focus on several incidents, not necessarily in chronological order, that illustrate Muhammad as a terrorist. The first terrorist incident involves Muhammad's command to his followers to "kill any Jew that comes under your power".

"The apostle said, "Kill any Jew that falls into your power." Thereupon Muhayyisa b. Masud leapt upon Ibn Sunayna, a Jewish merchant with whom they had social and business relations, and killed him. Huwayyisa was not a Muslim at the time though he was the elder brother. When Muhayyisa killed him Huwayyisa began to beat him, saying, 'You enemy of God, did you kill him when much of the fat on your belly comes from his wealth?" Muhayyisa answered, "Had the one who ordered me to kill him ordered me to kill you I would have cut your head off."

The Apostle of Allah said: If you gain a victory over the men of Jews, kill them. So Muhayyisah jumped over Shubaybah, a man of the Jewish merchants. He had close relations with them. He then killed him. At that time Huwayyisah, brother of Muhayyisah had not embraced Islam. He was older than Muhayyisah. When he killed him, Huwayyisah beat him and said: O enemy of Allah, I swear by Allah, you have a good deal of fat in your belly from his property.

This murder was committed upon Muhammad's command. Note that this Muslim murderer would have killed a family member at the drop of a hat. Muhammad was no better than a bigoted criminal boss, ordering his men to wantonly murder Jewish people. Hitler did this. And, this is what the Serbs did to the Kosovan Muslims. Muhammad's command to murder Jews puts him in the same category as Milosovic, Hitler, and others who have persecuted Jews throughout history.

Here another man was murdered upon Muhammad's command. This man was 120 years old. He was no physical threat to Muhammad and he did not urge people to commit violent acts against Muhammad or the Muslims. There was no discussion with Jewish leaders, there was no dialogue with Abu Afak; it was just an outright murder of another one of Muhammad's critics. Afak urged the people who lived in Medina to doubt and leave Muhammad. Afak found that Muhammad's sayings were strange and dictatorial. He chided the Arabs that put their faith in Muhammad. Muhammad heard of this and viewed the 120 year old man as a threat to his credibility, not to his life. Nowhere does it say that Afak urged his fellow Arabs to attack or harm Muhammad. Yet for speaking his mind, for the benefit of his friends, this man was murdered by Muhammad.

"Though I knew whether it was man or jinn Who slew you in the dead of night (I would say naught)."

This statement displays that the Muslims knew exactly what they were doing. They knew it was cold-blooded murder that they were committing upon Muhammad's request. They wanted to keep it secret, they wanted to hide their evil deeds from the populace at large. That's why Umama said he wouldn't reveal who murdered Afak.

When I think of what type of people order their followers to commit murder, I only can think of organized crime bosses or corrupt political figures. Saddam Hussein comes to mind. How would an Iraqi be treated if he spoke out about Saddam? Amnesty International just reported that over 1500 political prisoners were executed in Iraq in one year. Or take the Ayatollah Khomenni. His fundamentalist Islamic regime had other dissident Iranians murdered all over the world. These murderous Muslims represent exactly what Muhammad was all about. They follow Muhammad's methodology: kill those who are a threat to your credibility and power over others.

The third incident involves Muhammad's request for his men to murder a women named Asma b. Marwan. When the apostle heard what she had said he said, "Who will rid me of Marwan's daughter?" Umayr b. Adiy al-Khatmi who was with him heard him, and that very night he went to her house and killed her. In the morning he came to the apostle and told him what he had done and he [Muhammad] said, "You have helped God and His apostle, O Umayr!" When he asked if he would have to bear any evil consequences the apostle said, "Two goats won't butt their heads about her", so Umayr went back to his people.

Now there was a great commotion among B. Khatma that day about the affair of bint [girl] Marwan. She had five sons, and when Umayr went to them from the apostle he said, "I have killed bint Marwan, O sons of Khatma. Withstand me if you can; don't keep me waiting." That was the first day Islam became powerful among B. Khatma; before that those who were Muslims concealed the fact. The first of them to accept Islam was Umayr b. Adiy who was called the "Reader", and Abdullah b. Aus and Khuzayma b. Thabit. The day after Bint Marwan was killed the men of B. Khatma became Muslims because they saw the power of Islam."

Let's sum this up and put it in perspective. Muhammad had al-Harith b. Suwayd b. Samit killed. This upset Abu Afak, so he spoke out against it. So, likewise, Muhammad had Abu Afak murdered. This offended Asma b. Marwan and she spoke out against that evil deed. She encouraged her fellow tribesmen to take action against Muhammad. When Muhammad heard of what she had said, he had her killed also. At first glance, this order to kill Asma might seem justifiable. Asma was calling for someone to kill Muhammad. It is understandable for Muhammad to be bothered by that.

But let's look deeper at the event and examine the context of Asma's relationship to her tribe.

First of all, Asma has seen Muhammad in action. She had seen him for what he was, a cold blooded murderer. Of course she spoke out against a murderer. Second, her tribe was not under Muhammad's rule. Perhaps they had a treaty with Muhammad, perhaps not. Either way, this women was free to speak her mind. If a treaty existed, and if Muhammad thought that she was out of line, Muhammad could have complained to her tribe's leaders, and they could have commanded her to be silent or dealt with the situation.

What's more note worthy about this event is that after she was murdered, Muhammad said "Two goats won't butt their head about her", meaning no one will care about her death. (Well except her children and her family). Also note, that there were already people from her tribe who had become Muslims. Certainly these people were not going to listen to her. The point is this: if no one really cared about her being murdered, then no one really cared about what she had to say. Her people also knew about Muhammad having Abu Afak murdered, and they didn't care about that either. Even in that light, no one would take her serious enough to listen to her urgings to murder Muhammad, who was the leader of a powerful group of people. None of her people were willing to put their lives on the line for her words. The bottom line is that Asma b. Marwan was not a legitimate threat to Muhammad. She didn't scare him, she was not the leader of her tribe, and she had little or no influence. She was little more than a nuisance to him. And one wonders why Muhammad didn't kill her himself? It was always easier for Muhammad to have someone else do his killing.

Put the shoe on the other foot. Throughout the Middle East, there are Muslims who call America the Great Satan. These Muslims have called for the violent destruction of America. Frequently great crowds have gathered to chant "death to America, or death to one of its presidents." At times these people have even murdered Americans. Now, if America, or its president, were to use Muhammad's standards, they would engage in killing multitudes Muslims, because Muslims criticized America. America could justify its action by appealing to Muhammad’s standards of treating those who criticized him. But we know that the chanting of a crowd of hot-heads does not necessitate the use of violence against them. There are better ways to deal with critics and criticisms. Frequently, in the passion of youth, people do and say things they don't intend to act out, or are not able to carry out. Given time, people can change, and pursue peaceful dialog. But if one applied Muhammad's standards, American would be justified in bombing Tehran; Israel would be justified in wiping out hundreds of thousands of Arab Muslims.

The only conclusion is that this lady troubled Muhammad and he wanted her silenced. Again, like Abu Afak, she was murdered in the night while she slept. What type of people murder those that sleep? Criminals!

What alarms me the most about Islam is its disposition to violence and use of violence as a standard of God's will. Umayr is a perfect example of this. Here is a Muslim man, a friend of Muhammad's, acting upon Muhammad's request and going into a woman's home under the cover of night. He comes upon the women, sleeping in her bed with her child, and murders her by plunging a sword through her body.

Afterwards, Muhammad tells the man that he has "helped God and his apostle". If Allah were really threatened by this woman, I think He could have killed her Himself, don't you? Does God need men to sneak around in the night and murder sleeping women?

cont'd next post

Sounds like the Mob.. a Gangster

[Soldier4Christ]

Muslim Preacher on Temple Mount: Restore Worldwide Islamic Rule
11:59 Feb 26, '06 / 28 Shevat 5766

Sheikh Ismail Nawahda, preaching to Moslem masses on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Friday, has brought it out into the open: the call to restore the Moslem Khalifate, or, "Genuine Islamic Rule."


A plan for the "Return of the Khalifate" was published secretly in 2002 by a group called "The Guiding Helper Foundation." The group explained that it wished to "give direction to the educated Muslim populace in its increasing interest in the establishment of Islam as a practical system of rule."

This past Friday, Feb. 24, however, the plan went public. Sheikh Nawahda called publicly for the renewal of the Islamic Khalifate, which would "unite all the Moslems in the world against the infidels."

The Khalifate system features a leader, known as a Khalif, who heads worldwide Islam. Assisted by a ten-man council, his decisions are totally binding on all Moslems.

According to the Foundation's vision of the Khalifate, significant punishment can only be meted out for 14 crimes, including "accusing a chaste person of fornication," "not performing the formal prayer," and "not fasting during Ramadan."

The Foundation recommends working to restore the Moslem dictatorship using a system of small groups around the world. The purpose is so that the "enemies of Islam" who "will definitely try to stop us" will have a "much harder task, if not impossible, if they are faced with a myriad of small groups of differing locations, ethnicities," etc. This method also "ensures that if one group... is found and cut off, other similar groups will remain undetected."

Sheikh Nawahda reminded his Temple Mount audience that the first step taken by Muhammed in stabilizing his rule was to form the nucleus of the first Islamic country in the city of Medina. Nawahda also said that the status of Moslems around the world has dropped drastically ever since the collapse of the last Khalifate in 1924, after Turkey became a democratic republic.

Nawahda called upon the Arabs of the Palestinian Authority to rise above their personal and party interests, and said that Moslems must return to Islam and join forces in the struggle against the West. He praised the worldwide protests against the anti-Muhammed cartoons, and encouraged the Moslem public to continue such activities. He implied that those who insulted Muhammed are liable for death. The Sheikh designated the Moslem masses as a strong point that can be utilized in the fight against the West.

[nChrist]

Brothers and Sisters,

Islam can only be as good and peaceful as their holy book, the koran. I obviously would not wish for everyone to run out and buy a copy of the koran to see just exactly what the Islamic doctrines are. One can easily read English versions of the koran on the Internet or get their own copy for more extensive study. I would recommend this only for mature Christians because the koran is no better than any other cult or false religion material.

If one reads the koran, it becomes obvious very quickly that the koran does NOT teach peace with people of other religious faiths. Many will try to deny the very plain teachings of the koran and say that it can only be properly interpreted in Arabic. This is a known lie, as the koran does teach violence. Let's talk about a simple example regarding a person of another religion. The only peace to be shown according to the koran is a reasonable opportunity to convert to Islam and reject all other gods and religions. If they refuse, the koran directs that they be killed. There are other examples involving violence that are much more blunt than this. The blueprint of violence from the koran is taught to their children in school as a primary topic. They even show their variety of cartoons that show the children what a joy and honor it is to be martyred as a suicide bomber. There are many schools in this part of the world where this hate is being taught right under our noses. We need not wonder why so many volunteer to be suicide bombers because they are brain-washed for their entire lives to do just that.

The truth of this matter is very simple: Islam is NOT a peaceful religion, and it never has been. Even the most moderate of those in Islam are still taught from the same book - the koran. The conclusion is very simple: Islam is a VIOLENT AND FALSE RELIGION. It certainly is NOT a matter of how kindly or gently we treat them, rather a matter of whether we wish to convert to Islam or die. We have been providing humanitarian supplies to hosts around the world for many years. They will take what we give them, but that doesn't slow down the curses and hatred they have for us. We made many of their countries rich by buying their oil, and much of that money finances terrorists whose primary goal in life is to kill us.

It is true that many in Islam don't have an immediate urge to kill us, but the same education and brain-washing has been done from the koran. SO, I doubt it would take much to turn them all into homicidal maniacs who are kill or be killed fanatics. Attempting diplomacy or negotiations is a joke, and it's simply seen as a sign of weakness on our part to exploit. It really isn't their style to attack people who are equipped and able to defend themselves. Their primary targets are the exact opposites - those who are innocent and helpless. They won't stand and fight a worthy enemy unless they are cornered and forced into the fight. Their other tactics are just as cowardly (i.e. hiding among or behind innocents).

[Soldier4Christ]

Amen Brother Tom, the more I read about it the more it shows that it is indeed a violen and false religion. Also the more I read about it the more that I see it tying into the end times, the possibilities of it being used by the anti-christ himself to deceive so many people.

[Shammu]

AMEN Brother Tom!!

[Shammu]

From part of my sermon, this morning.

This book made me sick to read. It was full of hypocrisy. Claimed to be divine in revelation and free of error (Sura 85:21,22), AND in compliance or agreement with the Bible, it is full of contradictions. Just like any other cult, in the world today.

Violence is commanded in Sura 9:5 - "So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush. "

What if you resist islam? Sura 5:33 - "The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His apostle and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned. " Definitely a tough Christian mission field if you are caught!!

Command to Al Tawbah: Sura 9:73 - "O Prophet! strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites and be unyielding to them; and their abode is hell, and evil is the destination."

Terrorists?? Sura 8:59-60 - "And let not those who disbelieve think that they shall come in first; surely they will not escape. And prepare against them what force you can and horses tied at the frontier, to frighten thereby the enemy of Allah and your enemy and others besides them, whom you do not know (but) Allah knows them; and whatever thing you will spend in Allah's way, it will be paid back to you fully and you shall not be dealt with unjustly."

Make peace and be friends with the Christian and the Jew? NOT! Sura 5:51 - "O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely allah does not guide the unjust people." How can a peace treaty ever come when this is commanded to the muslim?

Sura 7:51 and 10:3 claim 6 days of creation... but Sura 41 claims 8 days of creation? Sura 32-48 disagrees with Genesis 7.

There are numerous errors concerning Abraham: father's name was NOT Azar as called in 6:74; he did NOT live in Mecca (14:37); he did NOT sacrifice Ishmael (37:100-112); and he was NOT thrown into the fire by Nimrod (21:68,69).

And how about Muhammad. He was not sinless (Sura 40:55); he had 16 wives and 6' others'. Sura 4:3 forbids more than 4 wives; he never performed a single miracle (Sura 17:91-95). And what about his love for his people? He did not die for anyone. There is no personal relationship with him HE IS DEAD!!

And to the black muslims, have you been deceived? Check this out Sura 3:106, 107  "On the day when (some) faces shall turn white and (some) faces shall turn black; then as to those whose faces turn black: Did you disbelieve after your believing? Taste therefore the chastisement because you disbelieved. And as to those whose faces turn white, they shall be in allah's mercy; in it they shall-abide." Hey, my friends, the arabs were enslaving black Africans long before any Westerners did. Slavery is still flourishing in the middle east.

Don't be fooled about what the media says of the basic islamic faith. It is considered for the muslim good strategy to make treaties with their enemies, then at the most opportune time to run rampant with a 'scorched earth' policy while the other party is unprepared. Those in power within its leadership intend to yield “The Sword of Allah.”

Please pray for those muslims who do not understand what their religion and its leaders intend for the world. It is complete domination by the islamic faith. There is NO COMPROMISE you are either one of them or an infidel worthy only of extermination and damnation to hell. Those peaceful muslims in the western world and elsewhere are being played as the fool. If they decide when they find out the truth that this religion is not for them their punishment is DEATH to be carried out by any other believing muslim, whether directly commanded or not. To try and leave this faith is suicide in the eyes of the mainline muslim.

Islam the religion of peace?? Yeah, right. Don't believe what I tell you, and especially not what the media tells you. Do some research and find out first hand, what you have read here. They not only want you dumb, if you are not one of them they want you dead!!

Brothers, and sister let us pray these fools learn islam is violent.

[nChrist]

SO, Islam couldn't possibly be a peaceful religion unless the koran is condemned and they teach from another book. The world and our own politicians are simply lying to us to appease Islam. There is probably a reason for all of these lies, and it probably has something to do with slowing more masses from immediately joining those called radical extremists. I would be all for preventing more violence, but I wouldn't be willing to lie in getting it.

Doesn't it really boil down to the simple question of when will they obey the koran? I know that I could live in peace with Islam, but could they live in peace with me? Would this potential peace depend on me, even if I did nothing at all and minded my own business? I don't think so. I think that the only real peace is based on their ability to wage war and our ability to defend ourselves. In other words, the greatest chance for peace is our overwhelming strength to defend ourselves, and nothing else really makes any difference. BUT, we should still be feeding them and doing other acts of kindness and love, regardless of how badly they hate us. I think that this might involve part of the answer that 2nd Timothy was looking for the other day.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Isaiah 54:17 NASB  "No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their vindication is from Me," declares the LORD.

[Soldier4Christ]

Muslims attack Jew
at U.S. Islamic rally
Man says his life threatened at protest
demonstrating support for Hezbollah

A Jewish activist was physically assaulted and his life was threatened during a planned "peaceful" rally held by the Muslim American Society in Boston, he told WorldNetDaily today.

"I have never been physically attacked before. I've had slurs thrown at me, got into heated debates, but what was amazing was that I was actually physically attacked," Seva Brodsky said. "Since they were the majority, and felt invincible, they threatened to kill me!"

Brodsky, who recently returned from nearly six months in Israel, captured some of the confrontation on video, available at the weblog Solomonia.com.

The event Friday at Boston's City Hall Plaza was the Muslim American Society's "Justice for Palestine and Lebanon Protest." Participants brought signs, including one calling for "victory" for the terrorist group Hezbollah and the "Palestinian Resistance."

Brodsky reported to Solomonia he was bullied, pushed, shoved, cursed and abused after showing up in Boston where Muslims said they planned to rally to call for an end to the "indiscriminate" loss of life in Lebanon.

The event was held by the Boston branch of the Muslim American Society's Freedom Foundation, where spokesman Mahdi Bray told WorldNetDaily his group's events always are peaceful.

"I've been doing rallies since LBJ was president and I came out of the non-violence movement. Every rally we've ever had, regardless of the politics, all of our rallies are non-violent and peaceful," he insisted.

The local event organizer, Omar Abdala, said in reports that it was "unacceptable" to indiscriminately kill innocent civilians, and he is calling for Israel to pull back immediately.

Israel and Hezbollah, a terrorist faction operating in Lebanon, have been at war for two weeks after an attack on Israeli soldiers left several dead and two more as hostages.

Brodsky said he took out and turned on a video camera as he approached the assembled group, estimated by Boston police at about 500.

"As I approached the crowd I was confronted," Brodsky wrote. He said the man "tried to harass and intimidate me" and blocked his camera. When he tried to lift his camera overhead, to shoot over the top of the man confronting him, Brodsky said the man raised a large white banner to create a new barrier.

Then the crowd started threatening and verbally abusing him, he said, and a "short and skinny" woman screamed hysterically and grabbed his arm and his camera.

"At this point, indignant and even outraged, realizing that I was entirely on my own and no help was forthcoming, I yanked the camera … and a scuffle ensued," Brodsky said.

But one man then told Brodsky he would be hunted down and killed.

Brodsky said he eventually talked with a police officer and was directed to a nearby station, but he hadn't decided whether he would try to pursue a complaint.

Bray said there have been instances of individuals showing up at rallies with their own agenda of violence or intimidation and that he always arranges for police to be at rallies to address problems that do occur.

The Muslim American Society's website carried the Boston Globe report on the event. The paper reported both Muslims and Christians were at the rally and carried signs such as "Free All Palestinian and Lebanese Political Prisoners," "End the Israeli Occupation," and "Stop Aid and Weapons."

Brodsky, however, captured photographs of rally signs that said "Victory to Hizballah and the Palestinian Resistance" and "Zionists Out of the Middle East." A flyer attached to the sign said "Armagedon (sic)."

"I had the wrong type of faith," Brodsky told WorldNetDaily. "The Arabs at the demonstration were so hostile. They could see right away who I was."

The event was a big step among Muslims, said Caline Jarudi, of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Massachusetts, because Muslims frequently are concerned about vocalizing their views.

Participants in the rally also held pictures of the dead in Lebanon, but a spokesman for the American Jewish Committee in Boston, Lawrence Lowenthal, said Hezbollah has moved into homes and apartments in civilian areas in Lebanon in order to launch rockets at Israel.

"I don't understand what alternative Israel has," he told the newspaper. "Hezbollah is holding Israel hostage."

[Shammu]

Brother that just proves how violent islam is............... Their own lies, will be their own doom.

[Soldier4Christ]

The Caliphate


With Al Qaeda’s No. 2 leader issuing a worldwide call for Muslims to rise up in a holy war against Israel, we better wake up to the fact that the war has been declared on the free world. Ayman al-Zawahiri could not have put it so eloquently, “all the world as a battlefield open in front of us.”

One must focus on history when one hears the islamofacist battle cry,”We will attack everywhere.” Please do not forget that Spain was really controlled by Arab Muslims for more than seven centuries until they were driven from power in 1492.

It is particularly disturbing to hear that al-Zawahiri has called for Sunni, Shia, and non Muslims to join with al-Qaeda to destroy the United States and the State of Israel. This script follows al-Qaeda’s master plan to to establish a government ruled of the Caliphs.”

In September 2005, Gen. Richard Myers, then chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said, “The stakes are huge…..if (al Qaeda) were allowed to be successful in Iraq, in their view, that would be the start of the caliphate that they envision. The stakes would be huge for the region. You talk about instability. It would be instant instability in that region, in Saudi Arabia on down the Gulf states, perhaps Iran, Syria, Turkey.”

With those words, Myers unambiguously identified America’s strategic imperative for the post invasion conflict in Iraq — preventing the birth of a fundamentalist Islamic empire spanning the entire Middle East — al Qaeda’s Caliphate. Unfortunately, this is something that the liberal democrats like Howard Dean, Jack Murtha, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, et. al. cannot get through their thick heads. Today, in his video released through Al-Jazeera, al-Zawahiri moved the goal posts of the Caliphate that General Myers spoke of in September 2005, to include Spain and the northern Mediterranean rim countries. Wonder if Spanish socialist überweenie Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (who recently donned a Palestinian scarf, the symbol of a death cult society) is beginning to have second thoughts about his dhimmis attitude. I doubt Zapatero has a clue what he is doing. I am sure that Zapatero is oblivious to the threats of al-Qaeda.

For sure, the liberal Howard Deans’ of this world would wake up before it is too late.

Bin Laden, al-Zawahiri and their al-Qaeda organization have stated that the only way to establish the Caliphate is by force.

Al-Qaeda is now soliciting an alliance with Hezbollah to facilitate their caliphate dreams. Shia, moderate Muslims, and dhimmis should beware of the “wolves of war,” al-Qaeda. When it is all said and done, al-Qaeda’s final goal, therefore, is to overthrow all Muslim governments with their particular firebrand form of Islam. Al-Qaeda who views moderate Islam as corrupt wants to drive Western influence from Spain to Iraq and abolish state boundaries for their islamofacism super state.

America and the free world had better wake up to the fact that al-Qaeda has declared war on the free world. We are already in world war III and the donk lefti hate President Bush so much that they would rather sleep with the enemy than to defend the United States from all enemies foreign and domestic. Sometimes I wonder if the same speech writers write DNC speeches and al-Zawahiri’s.

[Shammu]

This is nothing new to me brother. Islam has declared war, on the world back in May 14 1948.

[Shammu]

 Man cuts off hand in butcher shop
By: Jason Jacks

In a surreal scene, police said a man purposely cut off one of his hands in a Springfield butcher shop Saturday evening.
The grisly incident occurred in Super Halal Meat along the 7000 block of Spring Garden Drive, which bisects Brookfield Plaza, home to numerous Asian, Indian and Middle Eastern eateries and markets.

Advertisement
Click Here!
"I'm still numb talking about it," said Vikas Sinsunwal, who saw the man after he severed his hand.

Sinsunwal said he was outside his parents store, Niralla Sweets, when the man, announcing "I did this for Allah," approached his parents' shop lifting his bloody left arm into the air. "I could actually see bone in his wrist," he said.

He said after staring through the front window of his parents' store for several seconds, Sinsunwal said the man then walked toward traffic on busy Backlick Road as people poured out from surrounding businesses. He said police eventually arrived and grabbed the man as he attempted to evade the officers.

Mary Mulrenan, a spokeswoman with the Fairfax County Police Department, said officers were called to the scene for a person brandishing a weapon, but instead found "a man missing a hand."

After securing the man, she said police then called paramedics who transported him to Inova Fairfax Hospital for medical treatment and psychological evaluation.

Mulrenan would not say how the man, who was not identified, amputated his hand.

However, local NBC 4 News reported the man, while waiting on his order of goat meat, walked behind the butcher shop's counter and sliced off his hand presumably with an electric meat cutter. His teenage son was with him at the time.

Police said no criminal charges will be filed.

Man cuts off hand in butcher shop
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Talk about stupid, I wonder if it went, hand, in hand. 

[Soldier4Christ]

Fanatics around the world dream of the Caliph's return

It was, according to The Daily Telegraph, "one of the most astonishing acts of suicidal recklessness in the history of a modern or ancient times". On March 3, 1924, Turkish nationalists abolished the Caliphate, the position of supreme leadership handed down from the time of the Prophet Muhammad's first successors in the 7th century.

As Abdel-Mejid II, the last Caliph, went into exile - and later died in Paris - this newspaper predicted "the inevitable stirring up of the Moslem world". Today the Muslim world - and a good part of the non-Muslim world - is undeniably "stirred up".

From the London Underground to the streets of Baghdad and the hotels of Sharm el-Sheikh, the Muslim fanatics who blow themselves up in the name of Islam believe their "jihad" will ultimately defeat the infidel West and restore a Caliph to rule the billion-strong Islamic nation, or umma, according to Islamic law, or sharia.

For Osama bin Laden and his followers the end of the Caliphate was the moment of historic rupture, when foreigners broke up the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War and colonised Muslim lands. Even after independence, the regimes they left behind were godless and foreigners meddled in Muslim affairs, not least by supporting Israel.

In his first video released after the September 11 attacks, bin Laden declared: "What the United States tastes today is insignificant compared to what we have tasted for tens of years.

"Our nation has been tasting this humiliation and contempt for more than 80 years. Its sons are being killed, its blood is being shed, its holy places are being attacked, and it is not being ruled according to what God has decreed."

The long crisis of the Islamic world, from Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798 to George W Bush's invasion of Iraq in 2003, provokes two broad responses among Muslims. One is to "modernise" by adopting western models, often in order to stand up to the West more effectively. The other is to return to a golden age by restoring the tenets of Islam.

As a religion that grew with Muslim conquest, Islam does not distinguish between the spiritual and the temporal. Islamists claim that after centuries of Islamic jurisprudence, "Islam has all the answers". But they have yet to resolve the question of how the Islamic state can be achieved: by preaching, political action or holy war? And if jihad is waged, what should be its targets and methods?

The outcome of these debates will do much to determine the course of the violent campaign being orchestrated by bin Laden and his admirers.

For much of the last century, the idea of Islam as a political cause seemed consigned to history as nationalists had the upper hand from Turkey to Egypt, Persia and Pakistan.

Mustafa Kemal, or Ataturk, went the furthest. Having abolished the Caliphate, he turned the rump of the Ottoman empire into the secular republic of Turkey and forced through the wholesale adoption of European legal codes, writing and calendar.

In Egypt, nationalists agitated against British colonialism. Later, Gamal Abdel Nasser's coup in 1952 led to the rise of strident Arab nationalism that demanded the creation of a single Arab state.

Islamists reviled nationalists for fragmenting the "land of Islam", elevating the laws of man above those of God, and worshipping national sovereignty as a false "idol".

The first Islamist mass movement was Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928. It initially emphasised personal piety and educational work, but quickly became a political force under the slogan - still current today - that "Islam is our Constitution".

Nasser's Free Officers briefly co-operated with the Brotherhood, but soon banned it. Its members were exiled, jailed or hanged. Many found refuge in monarchies such as Jordan, which sought allies to confront Nasser's radicalism, and Saudi Arabia, where the growing oil economy sucked in teachers, bureaucrats and workers from around the Muslim world.

Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian teacher and civil servant, set out the basic doctrines of radical Sunni Islamism, mostly written in Nasser's jails in the 1960s. Qutb believed that Muslims were living in jahiliyya, the state of ignorance and barbarism that existed in Arabia before the advent of Islam. It had to be fought just as the Prophet Muhammad had fought the pagans.

The corollary was that Muslims who did not subscribe to Qutb's notion of an Islamist "vanguard" could be declared unbelievers, or kafir. Qutb was executed before fully elaborating his theory, but it has been seized upon by extreme jihadis to justify killing innocent Muslims.

It was not until the 1970s that Islamists came to the fore through a combination of factors: Israel's defeat of Arab armies in 1967 which broke the prestige of Arab nationalists; Saudi Arabia's petro-dollars which gave Islamists the means to proselytise around the Muslim world; and Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic revolution which overthrew the Shah of Iran in 1979.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan the same year was the rallying cause for Sunni Arab Islamists, including bin Laden, who waged a jihad against the Soviet Union with the help of Saudi money and American weapons, and the co-operation of Pakistan's secret services. Apart from occasional bursts of violence, such as the assassination of Egypt's president Anwar Sadat in 1981 after he signed a peace treaty with Israel, Sunni Islamists concentrated on fighting the Soviets and building grassroots support at home.

The task of confronting America was taken up principally by Shias, the Iranian clerics and their Lebanese allies, Hizbollah, which pioneered the use of suicide bombings against the American marines, French and Israeli forces in Lebanon.

The withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1989 and the end of the Cold War was a turning point. Just like the early Arab and Muslim armies had defeated the Persian empire and then gradually overcame the Byzantines, the Sunni "Arab Afghans" believed they had caused the collapse of the Soviet Union and would now bring down the other infidel empire, the United States. The deployment of US troops in Saudi Arabia to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991 further radicalised Islamists such as bin Laden. Yet most jihadis still gave priority to fighting "the near enemy", that is Arab regimes, rather than the "faraway enemy", Israel and its American ally. After the fall of Kabul to the Mujahideen in 1992, Arab fighters returning home ignited bloody insurrections, particularly in Egypt and Algeria.

cont'd

[Soldier4Christ]

But as these insurgencies were crushed, more militants became convinced that the only way to get rid of the impious governments was to attack the "faraway enemy" that supported them. The 1993 lorry bombing of the World Trade Centre, carried out by followers of the blind Egyptian sheikh, Omar Abdel Rahman, was the first attempt to take the war to American soil. Five years later, from their refuge in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of Egypt's Islamic Jihad, announced their merger to create the "World Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders". They issued a fatwa declaring that "to kill Americans and their allies, civilians, and military is an individual duty of every Muslim who is able."

Their attacks - which saw the suicide bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and the crippling of the USS Cole in Aden in 2002 - climaxed with September 11. Declaring a "global war on terrorism", President George W Bush quickly toppled the Taliban in Kabul and scattered al-Qa'eda's leadership. However al-Qa'eda fragments or its sympathisers have since carried out a succession of bombings - many of them suicide missions - against western targets in Tunisia, Pakistan, Indonesia, Kenya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Spain, Iraq, Egypt and now Britain.

Bin Laden's group was once seen as a "holding company" for jihadi groups around the world. But now western intelligence officials speak of al-Qa'eda as a "franchise" in which autonomous militant cells adopt bin Laden's anti-western ideology, terrorist methods and perhaps even the al-Qa'eda name.

A few months after the September 11 attacks, Zawahiri, arguably the real operational brain behind al-Qa'eda, released a "last will" in which he offered the clearest rationale yet for al-Qa'eda's cataclysmic attack on America.

In "Knights Under the Prophet's Banner", Zawahiri acknowledged that Islamists had failed to mobilise the Muslim "masses" against their own rulers. But he argued that the wars against foreigners in the Palestinian territories, Chechnya and Afghanistan had proven popular. Zawahiri said jihadis should now exploit the cause of Palestine, which "has been firing up the feelings of the Muslim nation from Morocco to Indonesia for the past 50 years", by striking at "the Americans and the Jews".

The benefits would include "dealing the blow to the great master"; "winning over the [Muslim] nation" by choosing a popular target; and exposing Arab regimes as western stooges if they tried to stop the jihadis.

Predicting that attacks on America would undermine its friendship with Arab leaders, Zawahiri calculated that the US would have to decide whether to withdraw from the Middle East or invade, in which case "the battle will turn into clear-cut jihad against infidels".

Zawahiri said jihadis should not lose sight of the ultimate goal - the creation of an Islamic state in the heart of the Muslim world, notably in Egypt, as a base from which to "lead the Islamic world in a jihad against the West" and recreate the Caliphate.

Without securing an Islamic state, "our actions will mean nothing more than mere and repeated disturbances".

Since turning on the "faraway enemy", the jihadis have certainly caused much "disturbance", but by Zawahiri's own measure, they have yet to achieve the central objective of seizing real power. In any case, there is nobody in sight who can claim the Caliph's mantle.

[Soldier4Christ]

What do Islamist terrorists want? The answer should be obvious, but it is not.

A generation ago, terrorists did make clear their wishes. Upon hijacking three airliners in September 1970, for example, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine demanded, with success, the release of Arab terrorists imprisoned in Britain, Switzerland, and West Germany. Upon attacking the B'nai B'rith headquarters and two other Washington, D.C. buildings in 1977, a Hanafi Muslim group demanded the canceling of a feature movie, Mohammad, Messenger of God," $750 (as reimbursement for a fine), the turning over of the five men who had massacred the Hanafi leader's family, plus the killer of Malcolm X.

Such "non-negotiable demands" led to wrenching hostage dramas and attendant policy dilemmas. "We will never negotiate with terrorists," the policymakers declared "Give them Hawaii but get my husband back," pleaded the hostages' wives.

Those days are so remote and their terminology so forgotten that even President Bush now speaks of "non-negotiable demands" (in his case, concerning human dignity), forgetting the deadly origins of this phrase.

Most anti-Western terrorist attacks these days are perpetrated without demands being enunciated. Bombs go off, planes get hijacked and crashed into buildings, hotels collapse. The dead are counted. Detectives trace back the perpetrators' identities. Shadowy websites make post-hoc unauthenticated claims.

But the reasons for the violence go unexplained. Analysts, including myself, are left speculating about motives. These can relate to terrorists' personal grievances based in poverty, prejudice, or cultural alienation. Alternately, an intention to change international policy can be seen as a motive: pulling "a Madrid" and getting governments to withdraw their troops from Iraq; convincing Americans to leave Saudi Arabia; ending American support for Israel; pressuring New Delhi to cede control of all Kashmir.

Any of these motives could have contributed to the violence; as London's Daily Telegraph puts it, problems in Iraq and Afghanistan each added "a new pebble to the mountain of grievances that militant fanatics have erected." Yet neither is decisive to giving up one's life for the sake of killing others.

In nearly all cases, the jihadi terrorists have a patently self-evident ambition: to establish a world dominated by Muslims, Islam, and Islamic law, the Shari'a. Or, again to cite the Daily Telegraph, their "real project is the extension of the Islamic territory across the globe, and the establishment of a worldwide ‘caliphate' founded on Shari'a law."

Terrorists openly declare this goal. The Islamists who assassinated Anwar el-Sadat in 1981 decorated their holding cages with banners proclaiming the "caliphate or death." A biography of one of the most influential Islamist thinkers of recent times and an influence on Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Azzam declares that his life "revolved around a single goal, namely the establishment of Allah's Rule on earth" and restoring the caliphate.

Bin Laden himself spoke of ensuring that "the pious caliphate will start from Afghanistan." His chief deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, also dreamed of re-establishing the caliphate, for then, he wrote, "history would make a new turn, God willing, in the opposite direction against the empire of the United States and the world's Jewish government." Another Al-Qaeda leader, Fazlur Rehman Khalil, publishes a magazine that has declared "Due to the blessings of jihad, America's countdown has begun. It will declare defeat soon," to be followed by the creation of a caliphate.

Or, as Mohammed Bouyeri wrote in the note he attached to the corpse of Theo van Gogh, the Dutch filmmaker he had just assassinated, "Islam will be victorious through the blood of martyrs who spread its light in every dark corner of this earth."

Interestingly, van Gogh's murderer was frustrated by the mistaken motives attributed to him, insisting at his trial: "I did what I did purely out of my beliefs. I want you to know that I acted out of conviction and not that I took his life because he was Dutch or because I was Moroccan and felt insulted."

Although terrorists state their jihadi motives loudly and clearly, Westerners and Muslims alike too often fail to hear them. Islamic organizations, Canadian author Irshad Manji observes, pretend that "Islam is an innocent bystander in today's terrorism."

What the terrorists want is abundantly clear. It requires monumental denial not to acknowledge it, but we Westerners have risen to the challenge.